Chapter Thirteen â Laser Tag
Dedicated to @JAmazingxX for commenting so much on this chapter so soon after it came out.
"We're here," Ryder says as he pulls the car into a parking lot.
I finished asking him all my questions on the ride over. I couldn't think of any good ones by the time I got to question seven so I just ended up asking him boring ones.
I get out the car and look around, trying to get an idea of where he was taking me. He watches me look around patiently with a small smile on his face and when my attention is finally on him, he nods his head for me to follow.
After about a minute, we finally come to a stop outside a familiar building. "Laser tag? You're taking me to laser tag?" I beam.
He nods and I notice how quiet he's been since we got out the car. He's still watching me, and it takes me a minute to place the emotion on his face. Nervousness. He's nervous about taking me here because of what I said about laser tag being the perfect date for me.
I already told him that this was just a friend-date. If he chooses to ignore that and gets disappointed when something doesn't happen between us, that's his fault, not mine. "What are you waiting for? Let's go inside."
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"Oh my God! You are such a cheater!" I'm yelling, but there's a smile on my face and even a blind person could tell that I was happy.
"Technically, I wasn't cheating. If I was cheating, I would've been making myself win," he laughs, sliding his arm around my waist.
Playing laser tag with Ryder was. . . interesting. At first we were on the same team, but that didn't exactly work out. Ryder kept on taking all the hits and letting me get all the shots, which wasn't fair to the game. So then I decided that we go on different teams. That didn't work out either, at least at first, because he was purposely letting me win. He would have a clear shot at me, then conveniently miss or hesitate long enough for me to get away. My suspicions were correct when I demanded a rematch and made him promise to play fairly. He won me by a mile.
"Okay, so maybe you weren't cheating. . . but you weren't playing fair either."
He shrugs. "Are you hungry?"
"Starving," I mumble. All that running around made me hungry, but then again. . . when was I not hungry?
"Where do you wanna go?"
". . .Taco Bell."
"Really? Me too. Let's go." And then next thing I know I'm being carried. And I am not talking about bridal style. Our chests are touching and our faces are just inches away. His hands are
just underneath my butt and my legs are wrapped around his waist. We're in the perfect position for a kiss. Or more.
What? Girls can be pervy too.
"Ryder. Put me down," I breathe. The feel of his hands on me and the warming tingle that entails has me a little off-kilter.
"But I just wanna carry you everywhere with me, you're so cute," he mumbles softly, gripping me tighter to him.
"Well I'm not a ragdoll. You can't just pick me up and swing me around as you please. Now, please put me down." Though this was kinda hot.
"I know you aren't. I respect you. I just can't help myself sometimes. Let me carry you to the car and then I'll put you down."
"Deal." I wrap my arms around his neck and snuggle deeper into his chest. Might as well make myself comfortable.
He makes a deep noise with his throat. "You should indulge me more often."
"You'd take advantage of my goods," I tease.
He laughs and squeezes me a bit tighter.
"Ryder?" I ask after a moment.
"Angel?" He responds.
"Stop walking so slow. I can tell you're doing it on purpose."
"Damn it, I was hoping you wouldn't notice," he murmurs, and then louder, "maybe I'm just walking slow because you're heavy."
"Right. That's why." I lift my head to raise a skeptical eyebrow at him. He isn't even breaking a sweat. His heart is pounding faster and his breathing is a little heavier, but the look in his eyes tells me it's not from the weight of my body.
As if to prove a point, he starts walking even slower and making exaggerated noises about how heavy I am.
"Ryder!" I exclaim, hitting his arm when I hear mumble something about me "weighing like three hundred pounds."
"Well, maybe you should put me down then," I huff, pushing away from him until he let me down onto my feet. I storm off before he can say anything and he immediately comes after me. By the time he takes my arm and turns me around, a tear is running down my cheek.
He freezes as he sees it and then he's brushing it away, murmuring to me under his breath. "Angel? Are you crying? I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it. Please don't cry. I'll do anything."
And then I burst out laughing.
"Got you!" His eyes widen at my sudden outburst, then narrow as he registers my words.
"Emma. . . did you just play me?" He asks slowly, like he wants me to think very carefully before I answer.
Ha! He clearly doesn't know me very well. "Yup."
"And that tear was fake?"
"Yup."
"So you better run?"
"Yuâoh shâ" He's charging at me faster than I speak, much less run, so I'm basically just standing stock still when he throws me over his shoulder. He then does the one thing I hate the most.
And tickles me.
One of his hands is keeping me steady while the other is tickling me all over my body. I'm laughing so hard I can't breathe, so I take my hand and shove it on his neck, trying to inflict some of this torture back to him. It doesn't work.
He immediately stops when I tell him I can't breathe, and slowly lowers me down, our bodies rubbing against each other every inch of the way. Our laughter slows as we stare at each other, and I can feel the atmosphere around us change.
Hot damn.
We went from goofing around to ready-to-rumble in point five seconds.
Ryder's hand slowly slides up my back to grip my hair as he tilts my head back. His eyes are dark as he starts leaning in, closer and closer, and I. . .
Burst out laughing.
Again.
"What is this a Lifetime movie? A romance novel?" I'm still giggling. "Their laughter slowly fades away as they gaze passionately into each other's eyes," I mock.
Ryder doesn't look quite as amused as I am though, he looks disappointed and a bit hurt as he leads me back to the car. "Whatever. Let's just go."
It hits me then how incredibly messed up what I did was. What if, when I was asking Sean out the other day, he just laughed in my face like that? How would I feel?
My eyes follow his back as he walks to the car by himself, drifting to where he held his keys rock tight in his hand.
Crap. What've I done?
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This chapter's kind of meh (but I hope you don't agree).
It's also short, but I figured I'd give you guys what I had instead of making you wait any longer. (Sorry about that BTW, teehee)
THANK YOU FOR 80K READS!! I KNOW I NEGLECT YOU GUYS, BUT I STILL LOVE YOU!
The picture below is how Ryder held Emma.